Okami Wa Nemuranai

"Welcome back, Lecan."

"Yea. Came across Fujisur on my way here, guy got bloodshot eyes. And it's rare to see him not with you. Something wrong?"

"Aah, yes well. It's nothing much. Now then, his excellency prime minister has a proposal for you."

"Guess not listening isn't an option."

"Please do listen. And do give your answer after. The PM wishes to have your wedding delayed by three months. And for you to hold the ceremony in the royal palace with his majesty the king himself as the host. Wazrof has personally requested Mashajain's Yuminos Temple and Vouka Ceres Temple to dispatch their personnel, but through a special arrangement, the one presiding over the ceremony will be the capital's Elex Temple with the help of other temples, while the former two will be allowed to participate. Furthermore, all the originally invited guests are allowed to attend still. In cases of invitees from distinguished families, Prime Minister Office will send new invitations under his majesty's name. Now then, will you comply with this proposal or not."

"I refuse. I don't like the capital. To begin with, what's the royal family got to do with my wedding. Don't butt in stuff you've no business to. I've left this wedding for Wazrof to run. Wazrof have made all the preparations. And they're trying to snatch that? In dungeons, those who steal kill monsters people are fighting can't complain if they get killed. And think about the guests. Is this PM guy sane? Those who have replied back affirming their attendance must have opened up their busy schedule in order to come. And they wanna delay it by three months? Screw that."

In reality Lecan just wants to finish all this bothersome stuff as soon as possible. No way he'd let it get delayed by three months.

"Umu! Well said. I'll relay your answer word to word as is. Hahaha, adventurers are nice. They don't care about mincing words even to nobles."

"You're an adventurer if you live freely. Say what you want to say straight. Tell it like it is. You're free once you're not bound by them."

"Hm? Did you pick those words from someone?"

"Yea. But why'd the PM even suggest that? You've surely done your fair share of trouble in the matter. Elongating that by three months and making the scale even grander would cost some huge labor."

"Naturally, it's to propagate the idea that the hero who defeated the enemy's supreme commander in the <Battle of Dorn Plain> and cut open the path to victory in the <Beastman War>, driving away the beastmen home was an otherworld warrior under the king's special favor."

"<Battle of Dorn Plain>?"

"The meadow to the north of Aspora is called Dorn Plain."

"Hmph. The royal family's trying to win me over huh. But the battle is over, what's the point of trying to pretend I'm connected with the royal family now?"

"The hearts and minds of people work in a mysterious way. Sometimes cause and effect get reversed. When the people see how the king directly manages a large scale wedding ceremony for your sake, they will have the impression of Lecan, a high ranking <Descender> adventurer is under the king's protection, which then overwrites <Battle of Dorn Plain> details. And from information our spies gathered, the prime minister had been contacting several adventurer guilds in the capital, asking them to establish a position of special grade adventurers under direct control of the royal family."

"Worthless."

"The prime minister is merely doing his job. Quite faithful and diligent to his duty, that man."

"You might be right, but I ain't gonna ever like the guy."

"To be perfectly honest with you, this attempt at wrenching this wedding to the royal palace was quite an insult to me. However, I could not exactly deny them. Very well, the wedding ceremony will be held on the 13th of month six as planned."

"That's good. Feel free to consider I'm refusing anything the royal family suggested in the future and tell it to them."

"That would be great."

"Is that all you need. I'm going out with Eda."

"And where are you going?"

"Rotor."

Meat.

It's where meat lies.

He's run out of dragon meat.

It's been awhile since he had one.

It's imperative for him to defeat Rotor's Petitfire Dragon.

Lecan departed Mashajain.

Eda wanted to come along too, but the maids wouldn't let her. Apparently Norma and Eda are going to contentiously get polished up from top to bottom up until the wedding day. Both the maids in charge of Norma and Eda were breathing heavily.

There's still 30 days until the ceremony. Wouldn't their skins dry up if they kept getting brushed that long, thought Lecan to himself, which he kept to himself.

Lecan ran through mountains and valleys at terrifying speed, arriving at Rotor on the 24th.

It was already evening, but he went straight into the dungeon and warped to the last floor.

He shot a rapid barrage of <Flame Spears> and cut the neck in one slice.

He split the body in three.

He put the head and body in <Storage> and left the dungeon as well as Rotor town.

Lecan sated himself with plentiful of Petitfire Dragon meat over a campfire.

(Fresh meat tastes good.)

(But meat that's been left for a bit got its own peculiar taste.)

(The best tasting one should be after a few months.)

<TLN: Catch the latest updates and edits at Sousetsuka.com >

(Gotta check it out.)

He went back to Rotor the following day and visited the townlord.

"Lecan-dono. I knew it, it was you."

"Could you process this Petitfire Dragon meat. Cut them apart and turn them into preserved meat. I'm taking all the meat. The bones are yours. Consult with Chaney for all other parts."

Rotor townlord, Naris Kandros was flabbergasted when he saw Lecan taking out the Petitfire Dragon's head and body.

"H-how did you transport all this. Where did you take it out just now, Lecan-dono?"

"Get to it. It won't stay fresh forever."

"...Would you be willing to sell half of the meat?"

"Tenth. Otherwise I'll just take it to Mashajain."

Naris Kandros could only nod to this.

The meat took four days to process.

He got back at Mashajain on the 37th.

Manfrey called him right away.

Lecan gave him one wrapping of dragon meat as a gift.

Manfrey thanked him and told him about the PM and what went down.

When Manfrey told them that Lecan fully rejected the proposal to hold the wedding at the capital, the PM Office agreed with it being held at Mashajain instead, but since they had already requested the temple head of Capital Main Elex Temple to supervise the ceremony, the PM Office asked Manfrey to help save their face. Manfrey replied that he cannot comply to their request.

Then they requested to have a joint sponsorship with the royal family. Which was turned down as well.

Manfrey was well aware that accepting that would have netted him the appropriate compensation in the future. However, Manfrey has always held the belief that the royal family is spoiling Wazrof and Rainzats too much. He plans to take some distance from here on.

Afterward, the PM Office requested to dispatch a Royal Envoy representing the king. Meaning the crown prince will attend the ceremony as the king's proxy.

Manfrey's answer to this can be summed up like thus.

"Even though the wedding ceremony will be held in Wazrof Mansion, a marquis mansion, we are imposing a limit of three attendants allowed per invitees. We have reached the maximum number of attendees despite this measure, thus as it will be impossible to arrange for his highness's security protocol in this event, I unfortunately have to ask for his abstain. We have sent one invitation letter each to the prime minister office and the royal family, please see to it as you fit."

That was quite the rude answer, but it was the truth that they simply don't have the space to house a huge amount of escorts needed. Manfrey explained by enumerating all the numbers.

Then the PM Office replied that they were fine with three escorts per person, so the two invitations would go to the crown prince and PM aide, Yeteria Wazbon.

Manfrey sighed deeply. Five escorts for the crown prince is completely insufficient. Wazrof would have to take the responsibility if things went south. He gotta come up with a plan to deal with it.

"Really. My bad. You're stuck with this mess."

"Don't be, this is all of my own volition. But if you really feel bad about it, I wouldn't mind another wrapping of dragon meat."

"No."

Afterward, Lecan went to play at Dungeon Ion.

Dungeon City Ion is about three days away to the east of Mashajain. As House of Earl Ion is an old retainer of Wazrof, they have kept a strong tie even today.

He returned to Mashajain on the tenth of month six.

The maids had bloodshot eyes as they reprimanded Lecan for returning too late.

But there's still three days left, thought Lecan, he apologized nonetheless.